MY BOOKS -1
On my bookshelves are around 4 meters of photographic literature, and I have here chosen a small part of it to mention here. Most of my books are from the last century: I now mostly use the internet to watch images and get inspired.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: Europeans.
HCB is the father of street photography and without reason world famous for his work. In 1947 he founded Magnum – a group of photographers – together with Robert Capa and some others. It is a very exclusive group. You can’t just join it. You have to be invited and start as a nominee and prove your quality.
The book was first edited in 1955. My copy is an exhibition catalog from an exhibition on Louisiana, Humlebæk, Denmark in 1999. The original book itwas a tight portrait of Europe and Europeans after ww2. You see the ruins and traces of hunger and misery in the faces.
Morten Bo: Spor / Traces – a people and a photographer in the 1970’ies.
He travelled around in Denmark and made this reportage of the Danish people – a social realistic description of a nation. Morten has also done a lot for educating people with interest in photography. The book is divided into small themes such as Farmers Market, The Girls, The Living Rooms, On Dancing School and so on. A funny thing is that the last 4 pages of the book show the development of his own family – from wedding to a family with 3 children. Very little text / no text.
Hans Namuth and Georg Riesner: Spaniches Tagebuch / Spanish diary
A fantastic document of the civil war in Spain 1936-1939. The 2 authors left Germany shortly after The Nazis took over power in Germany. In July 1936 they both came to Barcelona to do a documental job for a French magazine. Shortly after, The Spanish Civil War came to Barcelona. As French press photographers they started documenting the war. In 1939 they had to leave their office in Paris with only a few of their negatives – the rest were lost. Georg Reisner committed suicide in 1940 afraid of being delivered over to the Germans. Hans Namuth emigrated to USA, and he copied the negatives and finished the book.
Andres Serrano: A History of Sex
The most famous and discussed photograph in the book / catalogue is “Piss Christ” where he has taken an image of a crucifix dipped in his own urine. Otherwise, he describes death and life of humans including sexuality and religion. Sometimes the language must be sharp to reach out, and I must say, he is sharp. There has been a lot of public discussion about his image language that many find too fiercely. Interview in English.
Krass Clement: Byen bag Regnen / The City behind the Rain
Images of Copenhagen and Copenhageners from the 60’ies and 80’ies. The book is a magnificent melancholic, but also humorous and inspiring portrait of a town. His work is highly inspiring and poetic, in spite of their melancholic character. This is a social-realist portrayal of Copenhagen in the 60’ies and 80’ies is very different from other contemporary works, and his critical but still sympathetic approach, with a sharp eye for the humorous, makes it of great artistic value. Only little text – in Danish.
Nikon Magazines: A common thing for all the Nikon books / magazines is that there is very little about Nikon products and a lot about photography and images.
Nikkor Annual: I have 11 books 1983 – 1996.
Nikon News: Edited 4 times a year by Nikon Germany. I have been a subscriber from 1985 to 2004. As said above: Very little about Nikon, and many brilliant articles.
Nikon Photo Contest International: This contest is held every second year. In the analog days you were sent the catalog if you participated. I have second prize and 2 honorable mentions. I have all the catalogs from 1979 to 1996.
Photographie: Through the years I have been an in and out subscriber for many magazines – a couple of Danish, a German, a Swedish, and a Swiss one – Photographie. Here I took all the interesting pages with images out and placed them in ring binders. I have 1983-1987.
