Gerry Badger - Böcker

A compelling social and cultural history of Britain since the Second World War, showing how photographers have depicted the country over the last seventy years. Another Country offers a lively, vital rethinking of British documentary photography over the last seven decades. This collection includes a diverse range of photographers working in an exciting array of photographic and artistic modes, encompassing images from iconic reportage to photo-text pieces, from self-portraits to political photo-collages. As Britain takes an increasingly significant place in the history of documentary photography, award-winning photography writer and critic Gerry Badger brings vital context and breadth to the conversation. Organized chronologically, each chapter spans a particular period of social and cultural history, focusing on the major photographers, figures, institutions, publications and galleries that shaped the photographic climate of their time, as well as the broader tastes of the era. Chapter-by-chapter picture sections present famous works alongside forgotten masterpieces, interspersed with focused commentaries on selected photographs by both Badger and a range of contributors. This multilayered approach provides a rich understanding of the evolution and sheer variety of British documentary photography. With more than 165 photographers represented – including work by Bert Hardy, Lee Miller, Bill Brandt, Nigel Henderson, Don McCullin, Jane Bown, Yinka Shonibare, Maud Sulter, Nadav Kander, Tom Hunter, Chloe Dewe Matthews, Cold War Steve and many more – this book is a comprehensive overview of how photographers and photo-artists have depicted Britain and British society over the last seventy years.

The Pleasures of Good Photographs is an intellectual and aesthetic excursion led by Gerry Badger, one of the field’s eminent critics and popular writers. In this new volume of essays, Badger offers insight into some of his favorite images, artists, and themes, drawing upon nearly three decades of experience writing and thinking about photography. With deep discernment and a readable mixture of scholarly finesse and wit, Badger describes the meanings of work by dozens of photographers, from Dorothea Lange and Eugène Atget to Martin Parr, Luc Delahaye, Susan Lipper, and Paul Graham. Among the broader topics discussed are the photobook, where Badger believes “photography sings its loudest and most complex song,” and Photoshop’s role in art-making. An interlude at the heart of the book pairs the author’s evocative meditations with nearly a dozen particular images. Alongside some of Badger’s classics, The Pleasures of Good Photographs showcases primarily new essays, making it an important addition to the canon of photographic writing.

Newly revised histories of photography as recorded via the photobook have added enormously to our understanding of the medium’s culture, particularly in places that are often marginalized, such as Latin America and Africa. However, until now, only a handful of Chinese books have made it onto historians’ short lists. Yet China has a fascinating history of photobook publishing, and The Chinese Photobook reveals for the first time the richness and diversity of this heritage. This now available in a smaller size, more accessibly priced hardcover edition, volume is based on a collection compiled by Martin Parr and Beijing- and London-based Dutch photographer team WassinkLundgren. And while the collection was inspired initially by Parr’s interest in propaganda books and in finding key works of socialist realist photography from the early days of the Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution era, the selection of books includes key volumes published as early as 1900, as well as contemporary volumes by emerging Chinese photographers.

A renowned photographer, curator, and critic offers extraordinary insights into the evolution and significance of portrait photography."When we contemplate a portrait," says Gerry Badger in his introduction to this book, "we are asked to contemplate life. We are drawn powerfully to the person depicted." The relational aspect of portraiture comes into sharp focus through this personal selection of photographic portraits from the past two centuries. Here readers will find well-known works by widely recognized photographers together with lesser-known, but no less superb, pictures by lesser- known artists. Tied together with Badger's unique insights, these photographs reference and complement each other in an ongoing conversation about portrait photography's history, perspectives, and concerns.Each entry features a full-page duotone or color image accompanied by a brief essay. Badger's exacting insights and encyclopedic knowledge of his subject lead readers through a scintillating discussion that examines "death" portraits by Hippolyte Bayard and Sunil Gupta; issues of colonialism and racism through works by Malaysian photographer Yee I-Lann and Samuel Miller's portrait of Frederick Douglass; portraits of women from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and what is perhaps the first "celebrity" photograph of Sarah Bernhardt. Including a variety of mediums, from calotype and collage to palladium and ink- jet prints, this volume is a marvelously enlightening masterclass on photographic portraiture, as well as a unique and valuable reference work.