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Books > Arts & Architecture > Photography & photographs > Photographic collections > Photographic reportage
Imagined as a sequel to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible by
Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen, The Last Testament features
visual accounts and stories of seven men around the world who claim
to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Building on biblical form
and structure, chapters dedicated to each Jesus include excerpts of
their scriptural testaments, laying out their theology and demands
on mankind in their own words. Through Bendiksen's personal
testimonies and intimate portraits, The Last Testament investigates
the boundaries of religious faith, and a world in need of
salvation, yearning for a new prophet. Whether escaping an angry
mob in the streets with the Jesus of Kitwe, joining a Messianic
birthday pilgrimage in Siberia, or witnessing the End of Days with
Moses in South Africa, Bendiksen immerses himself among the
disciples of each Jesus. He takes at face value that each is the
one true Messiah returned to Earth, to forge an account that's both
a work of apocalyptic journalism and of a compelling artistic
imagination.
Mysterious, introspective, fiercely private, and self-taught,
street photographer William Gedney (1932-1989) produced impressive
series of images focused on people whose lives were overlooked,
hidden, or reduced to stereotypes. He was convinced that
photography was a means of expression as efficient as literature,
and his images were accompanied by writings, essays, excerpts from
books, and aphorisms. Gedney avoided self-promotion, and his
underrepresented work was largely unknown during his short
lifetime. He died at the age of fifty-six from AIDS. William
Gedney: Only the Lonely, 1955-1984 is the first comprehensive
retrospective of his photography. It presents images from all of
his major series, including eastern Kentucky, where Gedney lived
with and photographed the family of laid-off coal miner Willie
Cornett; San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury, where he attached
himself to a group of disaffected youth, photographing them as they
drifted from one vacant apartment to the next during the "Summer of
Love"; early photo-reportage of gay pride parades in the eighties;
Benares, India, Gedney's first trip abroad, during which he
obsessively chronicled the concurrent difficulty and beauty of
daily life; and night scenes that, in the absence of people and
movement, evoke a profound universal loneliness. The most complete
overview of Gedney's work to date, this volume reveals the
undeniable beauty of a major American photographer.
"Skeleton in the Closet"'s intimate portraits of women and men
struggling with the secrets of anorexia and bulimia is both fine
art monograph and memoir. Combining compelling photographs and
personal stories, it gives the reader a compassionate, first-person
look inside the minds of those who live with and try to leave
behind an eating disorder.
Artist Fritz Liedtke-who relates the story of his own struggle
with anorexia in his introduction-has created an award-winning
series that includes women and men of all ages and ethnicities.
Prefaced with a moving essay by award-winning novelist Gina
Ochsner, this beautiful fine art book challenges stereotypes, and
offers insight and hope to anyone wanting to better understand life
with an eating disorder and the challenge of overcoming addiction.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Georgia forty-one times between
1924 and1945. This rich gathering of photographs and remembrances
documents the vital role of Georgia's people and places in FDR's
rise from his position as a despairing politician daunted by
disease to his role as a revered leader who guided the country
through its worst depression and a world war. A native New Yorker,
FDR called Georgia his "other state." Seeking relief from the
devastating effects of polio, he was first drawn there by the
reputed healing powers of the waters at Warm Springs. FDR
immediately took to Georgia, and the attraction was mutual. Nearly
two hundred photos show him working and convalescing at the Little
White House, addressing crowds, sparring with reporters, visiting
fellow polio patients, and touring the countryside. Quotes by
Georgians from a variety of backgrounds hint at the countless lives
he touched during his time in the state. In Georgia, away from the
limelight, FDR became skilled at projecting strength while masking
polio's symptoms. Georgia was also his social laboratory, where he
floated new ideas to the press and populace and tested economic
recovery projects that were later rolled out nationally. Most
important, FDR learned to love and respect common Americans -
beginning with the farmers, teachers, maids, railroad workers, and
others he met in Georgia.
Tom R. Chambers' mother passed away in 1983. "Mother's 45s" is a
tribute. Chambers matched his mother's 45rpm records with the
family photographs to create assemblages by using the hole spaces
of the records to frame the images. He eventually arrived at a
satisfactory combination, incorporating forty-five 45rpm records
with images and a portion of each song onto an audio cassette to be
used as a part of the exhibition. He faded-in/faded-out the songs
and looped them for continuous play and in order with the wall
display of the photo/record assemblages. The photographs of his
Mother were sequenced according to the chronology of her life,
which spanned almost 60 years. When the piece is viewed along with
the songs, the sound stimulus pulls the viewer from record to
record (1 - 45) and this process has some interesting points: the
maturation process of his Mother is seen; the man who came into her
life and eventually became her husband and his Father is seen; the
maturation process of her only child (him) is seen; the change in
hair and fashion styles is seen; the change in automobile models is
seen; and various locales throughout the United States are seen.
This project (and its success) is the high point of his visual arts
career for the simple reason that it involves and perpetuates his
Mother's existence. http: //www.tomrchambers.com/index-13.html
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