Tag Archives: books

Joni Sternbach’s SurfLand

By Ed Fladung | August 6, 2009

surfland2

Joni Sternbach’s Surfers series is finally out in book form, it’s called SurfLand and is published by Photo Lucida. SurfLand is hardbound, 80 pages, 52 photographs and runs $50:

Sternbach makes her photographs in tintype, a labor-intensive technique little changed since it’s invention in the 1850s. Spontaneous and unpredictable, the streaks and tonal variations in the finished photographs reflect their hand-made character, the corners rubbed where they were held in the camera.

Posing on rocky outcrops, in front of uprooted trees, or on thick mats of woody flotsam, Sternbach’s surfers inhabit strange landscapes. The best of Sternbach’s photographs convey insistent longing. They are about relationships – the relationship between surfer and board, between human and landscape, between photographer and subject, and between the surfers themselves…she has discovered a new sort of home – a place without walls, defined only by belonging and the physicality of existence.

- Philip Prodger, Curator of Photography, Peabody Essex Museum

By the way, Joni Sternbach is a faculty member of the International Center of Photography in NYC and she does one-weekend courses every semester on the tin type collodion process she used to create the images in SurfLand. Check out ICP for more info

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Bookmarks for June 15th

By Ed Fladung | June 15, 2009
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William Claxton

By Ed Fladung | May 2, 2009

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Are these the dopest albums covers ever or what?

While digging for inspiration for a recent side project, I ran across these two record album covers. Both are Pacific Jazz covers art-directed by William Claxton a photographer who worked for Pacific Jazz in the 50s and 60s. Blue Note was killing it with their endless stream of amazing artwork documenting the sweaty soul and swagger of the New York City jazz scene, William Claxton and a handful of other photographers were crafting a beautiful counterpoint, documenting the unique attributes of California-based jazz. Claxton crafted the album covers of Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Jack Sheldon, Shelly Manne, Sonny Rollins, etc… and as with Blue Note, his album covers became just as important as the music inside. Over his lifetime, Claxton shot thousands of photos of musicians, actors, models and celebrities. He’s had numerous books published and there is a ton of good info online about him. Claxton died last year at the age of 81.

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William Claxton w/ trusted Rolleiflex

More on Claxton:

This whole rabbit-hole started when I was leafing through the pages of California Cool, a book that documents the album cover art of west coast jazz in the 50s and 60s.

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The California Surf Project

By Ed Fladung | April 17, 2009

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I’m really looking forward to Chris Burkard and Eric Soderquist’s epic The California Surf Project book. We’ve been hearing whispers about it for years and when Burkhard won the Larry Flame scholarship in ‘06, you knew this book was coming hard. And now the wait is over.

Burkard and Soderquist are doing a book tour and this weekend they stop off at Mollusk SF. I’ll be there1. The book’s blog has the tour dates and Chronicle Books (the publisher) has a good post about the book on their blog.

And here’s more on The California Surf Project:

Quit your job, pack your boards, and surf your way down the California coast….
Sound like a daydream? The California Surf Project is the fully illustrated travel diary of two surfers who took this trip of a lifetime. Chris Burkard, a talented photographer, and Eric Soderquist, a professional surfer, cajoled their Volkswagen bus along Highway 1 from the Oregon border to the Tijuana Sloughs and discovered everything the Golden State’s legendary coastline has to offer. Relive their incredible adventure of surfing perfect waves, sharing campfires with total strangers, and keeping the bus running with duct tape and prayers in more than 200 gorgeous photographs, soulful text, and a professionally produced thirty-minute DVD.

  1. Just kidding – I wish. just keeping you on your toes ↩
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Bookmarks for March 5th

By Ed Fladung | March 5, 2009
  • Seahuggers: Wood is Good
    Seahuggers has collected all 4 parts of the Tom Wegener / Patagonia film on one page. If you don't know who Tom Wegener is, he makes sustainable wood surfboards and he specializes in making finless surfboards called Alaias, which were the first surfboard planks used by Polynesians to surf waves. Wegener is partly responsible for the Alaia's strong comeback and surfing's renewed interest in alternative materials and shapes.
  • Patagonia – The Tin Shed
    Amazing website documenting all the cool things going on, over at Patagonia. really nicely executed flash website with a ton of video and other goodies. I wonder who created this site. definitely worthy of some heavy time wasting. plus there is a hidden discount code in the site, so keep your eyes peeled.
  • Puerto Escondido Beach Cam Show From Hotel Santa Fe
    did you know that there is a live web cam in Puerto Escondido? file this under: things I did not know.
  • Mark Batty Publisher
    This book imprint publishes some really nice titles. I was turned on to them by the "Mexican Blackletter" book and pleasantly surprised to find all of their titles are just as interesting. a heavy slant towards design, typography and street art. and all of their titles are moderately priced. definitely worth a look.
  • A Photo Editor – PDN 30 Photographers To Watch- 2009
    all the photographs linked up. some insane photography here. prepare to lose valuable work time.
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“Thread” – the book

By Ed Fladung | January 12, 2009

thread

Patrick Trefz’s “Thread” book

Powerhouse Books is publishing a book version of Patrick Trefz’s Thread. The book comes out sometime in the next few months and is a 10×10 paperback at 128 pages. Powerhouse makes gorgeous books. Trefz’s film is amazing.

This book is gonna be sick.

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No. 0043

By Ed Fladung | December 25, 2008

NO. 0043

A classy gift from the classiest brawd i know (besides my momma). The number 43 is also very auspicious, considered by some to be a magical number, whose repetition in the natural world confounds mathematicians and scientists. The book objet d’art was found in our podunk little town’s surf shop. Handled by many a surf transient but who’s pages never found purchase – until now.

Thank you, babe. and happy hollow dayz to all.

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Latin American Graphic Design

By Ed Fladung | August 21, 2008

Latin American Graphic Design. TASCHEN has just put out a insanely large survey of Latin American-flavored design, historical and contemporary. The book is text + photo heavy and weighs in at 504 pages1, lots of profiles on prolific designers past and present. For anyone interested in design south-of-the-border, this is the book for you. Taschen has a full flash-based preview of the book, you can actually leaf through every page. Very impressive.

Comprised of 20 countries located in North, South, and Central America as well as the Caribbean Islands, Latin America is populated by over 500 million people. From Argentina to Mexico, all Latin American countries are Spanish-speaking with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil. Latin America has been producing a very unique form of graphic expression for decades and this historical publication brings together the best examples from the 20th century as well as today. The book begins with an extensive historical essay about the region’s contribution to design, featuring the development of graphic design in the region from 1900 to current times, while the main body of the book features A to Z entries of almost 200 designers and design offices that have built up and continue to champion the Latin design identity. Finally, a handy index facilitates access to key information in the book, such as designers’ names, countries, publications, educational institutions, and famous events.

  1. thick book! and at $40 not too shabby a price for a Taschen book, all things considered ↩
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It’s All Good | Boogie

By Ed Fladung | April 25, 2008

On a recent trip back to the homeland (NYC), my sister Mosbef hooked me up with It’s All Good by a syrbian photographer living in New York, that goes by the name Boogie. The book is published by powerHouse:

A gritty, graphic, and gripping exposé of the underworld and its inhabitants, It’s All Good, the first monograph by Boogie, presents the predators and the prey in the drug game today. Shot in New York City’s most notorious neighborhoods—Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Queensbridge—Boogie gained intimate access into a world few dare to venture, a world closed to outsiders, a world of crackheads, junkies, and gangsters. From the cops patrolling the project roofs to the addicts overdosing on the streets, It’s All Good chronicles ghetto life in stark, heart-stopping images and intense testimonials. Boogie brings us to a place few will leave and most will stay, a place where escape is one rock, one shot, one glock away.

The photos are intensely candid and close-up. The people being photographed know and confide in the photographer and you can see it in every image. Boogie spent a lot of time getting to know these people and gaining their trust. The book is really powerful and grim.

In photography books / monographs, the images always stand on their own. In the truest sense, the story is told through the images. Text and image don’t often collide. It’s all about the images and most of the time, rightly so.

In ‘It’s All Good’ the images appear one to a page, with an introductory text to each of the characters every few pages. In the back of the book, there is a glossary of images, each one with a comment, from the photographer, on the person being photographed or context that the photo was taken in.

I really enjoyed Boogie’s comments and although the book kinda takes the middle road (by displaying the images by themselves and then including the glossary), I gotta say that I spent a lot of time in the glossary section looking at the thumbnail images and reading the comments. The full size images are gorgeous and raw, but the comments really open the story up and provide the details and context that the photos sit in. I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t just include the text with the photos.

There’s definitely a conversation there, about the role of the image, versus the roll of image and text together. And the intention of the publisher/author to present the images versus the intent of the viewer to understand the context of the images. I’m not sure if my “art discourse” hat is fully on today, so I’ll leave it at that.

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The September Project

By Ed Fladung | April 16, 2008

A-Side Studio combines beautifully subtle graphic design, illustration and photography. Their work is tight and laced with surf/skate inspiratory vibe. They art-directed a new surf culture related book project coming out called The September Project:

During the month of September in 2006 two dozen creatively driven surfers took residence in a house on the west coast of Ireland. The September Project documents the collective experiences of this place and time by means of photography, illustration and words.

plus lots of good goofy skate/surf/design snaps at their blog.

[via It's Nice That]

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Fragile Earth

By Ed Fladung | March 9, 2008

Upsala Glacier 1926
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Upsala Glacier 2006
2006

The promotional site for photography heavy book Fragile Earth has an impressive before and after slideshow of several bodies of water around the world. The two shots above are from the Ursala Glacier in Argentina. Astounding. I really dug the following quote:

The magnitude of the changes depends on us.
Humans aren’t the first species to alter the planet… but we are the first species to be in a position to understand what we are doing.
- Elizabeth Kolbert

Relatedly: that quote basically sums up a reoccurring thought I’ve been having as I slip towards the inevitability of becoming a full vegetarian.

[via treehugger]

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A Triumvirate of Circus/Freak Culture

By Ed Fladung | February 16, 2008

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Marcia and I have been on a circus vibe lately, that’s kinda how our minds work. Get on a theme and learn/discover/investigate. A few weeks ago, we got into the circus thing starting with Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen which marks a perfect jumping off point for historically accurate circus mythology dripping with Great Depression era magic and tragedy. If this book were ever made in to a movie, I’m sure the Coen Brothers would be directing.

Next, at the urging of everyone in my family, we read Geek Love. This book has been floating around my parents’ extensive book collection since it was published in ‘89. Geek Love’s emergency orange cover is burned into my memory. Never knowing quite what it was about, I was delighted to find a heart-breaking story about a traveling family of circus freaks and their eventual demise. I’d love to see Geek Love as a movie, although to be honest I spent most of the book wanted to choke the shit of the narrator, an albino hunchback dwarf with an obsessive, psychotically misplaced loyalty. In short, I loved it. A quick check at Wikipedia tells me that Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and Johnny Depp have all expressed interest in making Geek Love into a film. good crowd.

Making it a triumvirate of circus/freak culture, I introduced Marcia to Tod Browning’s Freaks. This movie is practically in my family canon, first showed to me when I was a kid by my uncle Tim, who managed to get a pirate copy on VHS. It was never officially released on VHS and didn’t make it to DVD until 2005 so for years Freaks enjoyed a cult-classic mythology surrounding it’s bombed release and subsequent burial by MGM. If you saw Freaks, you were privileged or at the very least, had a family member obsessed enough to seek out an elicit copy, long before the holy trinity of ebay, youtube and bit torrent. Unfortunately the versions floating around bt don’t have spanish subtitles and there are some spoken parts, not even I can understand. So my advice is get the DVD. It’s worth it. The signature line from the family of circus freaks shown in the film is “gooble gobble, one of us, one of us”, usually done in chanting style. This is sort of like an unconscious running line in our family that silently unifies us and always gets a smile from all, around the dinner table. I could be wrong, but I think that my entire family were circus freaks, in our last lives.

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Indo Surf and Lingo

By Ed Fladung | December 7, 2007

indo surf and lingo

Indo Surf and Lingo is the best surfing info source I have encountered for Bali and Indonesia. They say it’s the #1 guidebook for surfers. I say it’s the #1 source of surfing info for Bali and Indonesia, period. It’s like a Rough Guide but written by surfers specifically for visiting surfers who need the insider info.

I’ve scoured the web for info on wet-season surfing in Bali and there’s precious little. It has everything you’ll need to know: write-ups on each surf break, info for all surfing-ability levels, dry and wet season specific info (bali’s swells switch coasts each season), how to use wind speed, swell height and tides to figure out where the best waves will be, hotel information for each break and tips on how to reach less accessible breaks, charter boat info for smaller indonesian islands like Nias and Mentawais. Indo surf is very cultural sensitive and goes out of its way to respect local surfers and the lesser known breaks. It’s a very practical guide to learning the indonesian language as well as.

Basically, if it ain’t in this book, it’s probably because it’s so new they haven’t had a chance to update the book yet. IMHO it rocks, big time. So If you’re going to Bali, Indo Surf and Lingo is the indispensable, definitive guidebook on surfing in Bali and Indonesia. pick it up, yo.

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Hybrids Project

By Ed Fladung | November 20, 2007

hybrids project

Hybrids Project is a new photography book by Klaus Thymann. The book is filled with interesting images covering “…micro-pockets of hybrid cultures…” including snow polo, gay rodeo, underwater striptease, hip hop in china, an indoor beach, rave as religion and many more. The website for the book is equally interesting, with a unique thumbnail and preview system. thumbs up. oh and book design by Love Creative. [via Avisualsociety]

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Beginner’s Guide to Photography

By Ed Fladung | October 19, 2007

Bernie’s Better Beginner’s Guide to Photography is a wickedly simple, clear and concise one-page guide that does exactly what is says and does it well. If you don’t quite know the mechanics of a camera and the how photography works, check this out. and then go get two books: John Berger’s Ways of Seeing and Michael Langford’s Beginning Photography.

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