Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography
by T.J. Demos and Editors of Phaidon Press
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Book Summary Information
Author: T.J. Demos and Editors of Phaidon PressEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-21
ISBN: 0714846562
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Book Reviews of Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography
Book Review: An overview of photography
Summary: 4 Stars
It's big, it's well produced and it's a worthy addition to a photo book collection. Phaidon is a great publisher and the production values of this book are up to their usual high standards. The concept of "New Perspectives in Photography" is an ambitious topic, given the broad variety of art photography practice around the world. If you could sum up the main trend, it would have to be the movement away from the photo document and towards a conceptual exploration of the photographic object as it relates to the human experience. It is not photography, it is photographic.
Much of the work is relatively new, made in the past ten years and is representative of that shown by a certain kind of photography gallery -- one looking forward, yet rooted in the past. That said, much of the work references earlier photographs. Artists such as Gregory Crewdson and Anne Hardy create narrative, staged environments that the photograph documents, yet they look back to work from the 80's by Sandy Skoglund. Nikki Lee's work with her personal identity clearly references earlier work by Cindy Sherman. Tim Lee uses the photograph as a document of his conceptual work, a traditional way to preserve performance and conceptual art. However, there are some valuable new perspectives.
Rinko Kawauchi's beautiful photographs of life's ephemeral moments indeed provide a new, thoughtful perspective -- her book "the eyes, the ears" is worth searching out (sorry, not available on Amazon, I found my copy in Tokyo). Esteban Pastorino Diaz challenges our understanding of visual devices and the way they form our perspective of the world. And Paul Pfeiffer uses a database filtering model to create meaning from a photographic practice based on images appropriated from popular media. Clearly, innovation is limited only by the imagination.
The challenge with this type of overview is that it is almost too wide ranging and lacks depth -- it is without a singular point of view. It mostly covers artists who are already "established" in the gallery and museum circuit, which means you will be about five years behind the state of the art. The latest, newest work is found on the Internet, but only to those with the time, desire and domain knowledge to seek it out.
While you may pick it up once or twice, it is most valuable as a point of departure for further exploration of individual artists. As the other reviewers from New Zealand mentioned, it will probably be most valuable to readers without access to contemporary art galleries.
Summary of Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography
"Vitamin Ph" provides a third dose of visual stimulation and vital information, following on from the successes of "Vitamin P" and "Vitamin D". Similar in concept, scope and structure, "Vitamin Ph" presents, in A to Z order, the work of 122 international artists. This up-to-the-minute survey focuses on global developments in art photography and the use of the medium by contemporary artists. 78 nominators worldwide have identified living artists who have made a fresh and innovative contribution to recent international photography. All works reproduced in the book use photography as their primary medium or source material, whether or not they then develop into or merge with other media. Extending beyond the parameters of straight photography to encompass sculptural, painterly and filmic elements, "Vitamin Ph" explores the medium in an expanded sense. The artists represented have emerged, or re-emerged, in the last five years to create a distinctive body of new work. "Vitamin Ph" aims to contribute to international debates on contemporary photography whilst providing an accessible overview and concise reference book.History Books
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